Man Allowed to Board Aircraft With Apparent Bomb Components

Houston police and the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) disagree over who is responsible for allowing a man with what appeared to be bomb components board an aircraft at Hobby Airport last week.

Although the FBI eventually cleared the man of wrongdoing, police officials have transferred the officer involved and are investigating the incident while insisting that the TSA, not police, has the authority to keep a suspicious person from boarding a flight.

TSA passenger screening is not always foolproof. Frequently, banned items like lighters, knives and other sharp instruments are missed during the screening process. After returning home from a recent trip I discovered that a lighter I'd mistakenly ledt in a carry-on bag hadn't been detected. I've also gotten past the walk through metal detectors without it detecting a belt buckle, which undoubtedly meant the detector was set to less sensitive detection level.

Earlier this year, federal investigators were able to carry materials needed to make a homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports.

In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.

It’s unclear whether any of the chemicals which were allowed through by screeners are substances which sophisticated explosives detection “sniffing” machines deployed at some airports are capable of detecting.

Explosives detection portals like those made by GE are highly sensitive to detecting a variety of materials used in explosives. It’s not known, though, whether any of these sniffers were in use at the airports that were tested. If they were, then it would mean these and other detection machines would need to be outfitted to also detect the substances used in the testing.

As for the human screeners who allowed through substances that could be combined to make explosives, they may need to be better trained in explosives detection and educated about the kinds of substances that can be used to construct an explosive. Adequate training rather than sloppiness and lax screening is as much to blame for why these substances were allowed through security.

TSA screeners at airports from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. said during interviews that they were having to work longer hours and extra shifts because of understaffing. Some said they'd even been called to work on days off because of the lack of manpower to meet workloads.

Houston Chronicle